Story: Sterilization
A story with the Auctors and Iridi. Chapter 1: Servitude Beleph climbed out of the ship, his four clawed feet making easy work of the rough ground. His rifle was strapped to his back, and he wore light armour in preparation for the assault. Lenos and Kesn were there too, right behind him. They raced to the edge of the cliff, and looked down at the Flesh Thief encampment. The Thieves' ship sat at the centre, a sitting duck. Kesn drew his Shock RIfle, and fired. The ship broke open with a mushroom cloud, metal flying everywhere. The Thieves were in a panic, unable to see these silent attackers. The Iridi teams all around the gorge began to open fire, and bullets shot through the air. Flesh Thieves fell by the dozen, red mingling with the moist dirt. "Now charge!" Cried Beleph, and they went onto their hind legs. Guns pounding, they cleared one tent, and then another, and then another. "Klitching Thieves." Lenos muttered. Lenos was full of hatred, a xenophobic. He didn't even like their allies. Beleph patted him on the shoulder. "There are always more." ---- A pleasent female voice went over the intercom of the auctor ship, " Now descending, man stations, capture, sterilize, secure," The servus got to work, activating automatum, manning the stations, everything the auctors considered themselves too important to do. Not that the servus had the will to resist. ---- Lenos shot the last of the thieves, the blood splattered against the wall "Nice shot," Beleph told him. The iridi looked up, it seemed like a cloud had passed over the sun. "More thieves?" asked Lenos. "It looks like something else," someone whispered. A bird-like ship started to descend from the large one, carrying something. " Should we fire?" said a young iridi soldier. " lets not take any chances," the lelader spoke. quickly he opened fire on the ship. An earsplitting mechanical shriek came from the ship it spun, dropped what it was carrying, which landed neatly. The carrier flew quickly away, back to the main ship, And the leader opened his mouth to say something... and died, gone, vaporized. A moment of confusion and terror went through the iridi. most dove for cover as more of the carriers came. In the chaos the strider that the first ship carried rose, promptly firing on its attackers, vaporizing the cover, the attacker, or both. Lenos was in a cave, having escaped with beleph who was calling for backup. "We hear you! What did the thieves do!" "Its a diiferent threat the theives are dead!" Beleph shouted itno the comm. the strider crouched down to peer into the cave, "Krik!?" it shrieked it fired inside, and the mouth of the cave collapsed. Chapter 2: Old Graves Beleph could hear Lenos' screechy breathing in the musty darkness. He could also hear his own mandibles chattering. He controlled himself, and concentrated on his front eyes. Lenos' form became clearer, and he could see a boulder pinning his friend down. He pulled at it, to no avail. "You've got to help me." Lenos nodded weakly, and tried to push. Together, they hauled it up. Lenos stood now on his four legs, panting through his maxillae. "Can we tunnel out?" Beleph shook his head. They heard chittering outside. "The monsters! They know we're here!" Rocks began to shift in the cave entrance. The Striders lifted the boulders easily, and a few Auctors waited patiently behind them. Beleph readied his Shock Rifle. "Cover me." A shaft of sunlight appeared, and then an Auctor eye appeared in the crack. "Not yet." The gap got bigger... "NOW!" The Shock Rifle made a sound like a thunderclap as it fired. The Striders were gone, only charred remains left. Several of the Auctors were shredded by shrapnel. "Go, go, go!" The two Iridi raced out of the cave. Coming to, the Auctors began pursuit. The comm unit on Lenos' ear activated. "Team 5, team 5, respond." Lenos stopped, and began to reply, gasping as he spoke. "This... is team 5... requesting immediate evac..." "We hear you team 5. How many?" The Iridi looked at each other. "Just two." There was a short silence from the other end. "Sending reinforcements now. Go to 7,7,58, f9." The intercom stopped. "That's this way!" Lenos pulled out his radar map. "Straight through a hostile camp." ---- They crawled around the edges of the barricade, weapons slung on their backs. Beleph peeked over, and saw Auctors and Striders working away. A voice, vaguely female but definitely imposing, sounded. "This planet must be sterilised. Have no pity for the filth that we remove." An Auctor came up to the edge of the barricade. It looked over, and began to turn away. Lenos sneezed. It swivelled round, and screamed. "****" said the two Iridi, as one. Chapter 3 The auctor slammed them back against the baricade. It moved to Lenos, "No!" beleph shouted, strugling to try and move. The auctor inspected lenos, who was also trying to struggle. The auctor reached out with its probiscus, "The iridi are massing, expect reinforcments, Expunge, sterilize, reform," The auctor snapped Lenos's neck; just as Beleph managed to draw his shock rifle and fired. He dropped to the ground. Lenos was in peices, and the auctor had been badly hurt and was screeching and wirgling on the ground- Beleph had missed, but the plasma generated could do do plenty of damage. Beleph looked up at and saw a alien moving toward him, it had cold dead eyes, as if it had lost will to live. Lenos killed it with a knife, " What are you?" he thought aloud. The striders were busy grouping with more of the things he had killed. Thankfully the auctor had died before it could alert anyone. ---- In the auctor ship, the citadel was ready to drop, servus whizzed around trying to keep track of all the calculations. In the bay carriers were picking up troops, dropping them off, it was dull, but soon they would not be needed. The gunships and fighters were ready to deploy. Some were already flying down to the battle and patrolling the skies. " The air exchangers are to report to the docking bay imediatly, cleanse, expose, exchange." ---- Beleph was panting as he ran. The face of Lenos, as it vaporised away, was embedded firmly in his mind. He was scared. He could hear Auctors behind him, along with the whining of machinery and the thudding of spacecraft taking off and landing. Some Striders were coming after him, and they were damn fast. He ducked behind a rock, and a moment later they rushed past. He sighed in relief. Chapter 4 The Auctor ships were coming thick and fast. The Iridi reinforcements were barely holding them back, rapidly running out of ammunition and charge. A few shuttles had just been sent down. One member of Team 5 and three from Team Twelve had survived, apparently. Kiros watched an Auctor projectile smash into his ship's defenses, and the floor swayed slightly. The a-grav woudl be turned off soon to save energy. Come on, he thought.'' Bring them back fast! '' ---- Sarim fired blindly at the gunship, " Die die die!" he shouted. Miraculausly, one gunship fell, and two more came to replace it. He ran on, managing to avoid the gunships fire. He scurried under some wreckage, and waited. The gunships finally stopped firing and left. he started heading towards where the extraction point was supposed to be. He stopped panting, then continued. Sarim looked up and saw a huge space ship flying in the distance, it seemed to be targeting empty ground. the ground rippled knoking Sarim off his four legs. When he regained balance there was a massive tower pumping gasses into the air, and it looked like huge black flying goo was coming out. Then Sarim realized that was the amount of auctor forces pouring out. He forced himself to go try and rescue the poor sap. A big grubby mass flew over Sarim, he felt searing pain in his head. The auctor flew down to inspect him, "Warning Life support is at critical, return, refil, revive," said the overwatch. The auctor started lifting Sarim off the ground, and flying towards the tower. It dropped Sarim about halfway there, next to a guard. " Dont move, i wont hurt you," Sarim paused, then the guard removed it s mask, " We are slaves, i know were your friend is follow me!" "Where?" The outcrop, by the encampment, " Thats awfully close to your base, and how do you know our language?" " The auctors have been studying your species," the guard replied. Sarim reluctantly followed the guard, pertending to be a prisoner. chapter 5: Primal Fear Beleph started panicking again. What would he do? how would they find him? The monsters surely would kill the other iridi off. he heard a skritching noise and the menacing voice of the overwatch, " All Servus are officially on standby, patrol the area as you please," It droned. "Yes we can go find the escapee now!" Said something, definitely not iridi, but he didn't care it somehow knew his language, much less why it would speak it. Beleph waited as the noises got closer. He bolted " Wait! Beleph it's Sarim!" Sarim tried to tell Beleph. He didn't make it out. Beleph ran and ran, and they chased after him. After some time the servus pulled a gun, " Wait you cant do that!" Sarim tried to say. he was too late DUN! DUN! DUNNNNNNNNNN! Category:Fiction Category:Serial Fiction